Blog Description

This is a blog for the family and friends of Collin Park. He will be serving a two year mission in the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he left on January 24, 2013. While Collin is on his mission his Mom will be posting pictures and letters as she gets them, the content will be straight from Collin (unless otherwise noted) - spelling and punctuation will be corrected of course! Commentary and clarification may be added by his Mom as needed.UPDATE: Collin's mission was split in half! The Sierra Leone Mission included the country of Liberia when Collin first left. As of July 1, 2013, the mission was split along the border and the new mission created: the Liberia, Monrovia Mission. Collin will never see the country of Sierra Leone. He has been in Monrovia Liberia since he left the MTC in Ghana.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Because of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Liberia and Sierra Leone Missions were evacuated on August 4, 2014 and missionaries were reassigned to different missions. Collin was reassigned to the Salt Lake City Central Mission.

Monday, July 14, 2014

July 14, 2014

This week was fast, but it was great.

To start, we had a baptism on Saturday for Benjamin. His mother got baptized about a month ago so it was great to be uniting a family. Benjamin asked me to baptize him so i was able to physically help someone make covenants with Our Father in Heaven. Every time that I am the one baptizing the person, that whole morning I remember a talk that Elder Holland gave about being 'Commissioned of Jesus Christ,' he was explaining that as missionaries we aren’t just changing someone’s life when we raise our arm to the square and say the words, we are also changing our own life. I have always understood that what I was doing was important but I never thought of it the way Elder Holland explained it. I heard that talk about a year ago, I love listening to it. I was also able to be the one to baptize the candidate for the Sisters (the sister missionaries). I was able to baptize two people on Saturday and I am so very thankful for being on a mission and helping people change their life, along with changing my own.

President Kirkham has me focusing on the simple doctrines of the missionary lessons which is making teaching a lot easier and making the lessons shorter too. It is also making a lot of the concerns some have stop coming up. It’s great. As I was studying, I came across 3 Nephi 27:13-21. This is 9 short verses explaining what the mission of Christ is, and what his Doctrine is, and explains what happens to those that accept it, but then fall away. It’s a great passage to read with people. I found it in the morning and later that day I was able to use it with a less active member, his whole attitude changed as we read it together. I am so thankful for the scriptures, especially for the Book of Mormon.

Speaking of the Book of Mormon. We sat with one girl, Britonline, and followed on from the previous lesson about the Book of Mormon. She said she hadn’t read anything yet, so we decided to have her look at the pictures in the front, pick her favorite one and we'll read it. She chose the perfect one. She chose the crowning event in the whole book, when the Savior came to the Nephites. We read the whole chapter of 3 Nephi 11. The spirit did wonders with her. We asked her what she thought of it after we finished, she said, Joseph Smith is a true Prophet and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It was great and all but left me speechless. Once again, I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon.

This week was a great one and it went by way to fast!!!

I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon and the power of the Holy Ghost!!!.

The Church is True!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Park
The White African
T.I.A.

I asked him a couple of questions, I sent a couple pictures of his friend and our neighbor who had just returned from his mission to Taiwan, and I asked him about his new companion. He wrote:
The weather was pretty good, not too rainy. I got the pics and I’m totally jealous, and I somewhat forgot how a 1st world airport looked like. We are doing good and working super hard.

I love you so much!!!! (ok, that part was for Mom, but that was my favorite part!)

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Elder Collin Park is serving a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He will be teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in Sierre Leone and Liberia (West Africa) from January 2013 until January 2015.